I posted this a couple of days ago. I am very much a beginner photographer with a lot to learn. I feel this is one of my best shots and I would like to get input from others. What works, and how could I improve it?
There wasn't any sun that day so it seems a little dark, but I think it still turned out. And I didn't do any editing other than just a very little cropping.
@chapjohn Thank you John. I agree with the broken branch catching the viewer's eye. I thought the same thing. And I will try to do better with choosing where to focus.
Agreed, lightest areas are one of the known eye magnets (list of others below). But a subject can be multiple objects. To me, the subject here is adjacent colored objects on a background of a winter's grey - and it works. Unless you're a birder, a bird on a twig is using boring. The fresh broken limb invites the user to wonder why and by whom?
The following things are usually attention-catchers, and suitable as a focus for simplification. Listed in decreasing strength:
- Eyes
- Faces
- The human form in general
- Animals
- Light colored objects (against a dark background)
- Dark objects (against a light background)
- Warm-colored objects (against cool-colored or desaturated backgrounds: red on green, red on gray)
- Objects with strong contrast
First off, good job even getting this cardinal. I have a mated pair that visits my yard every day. I have yet to grab a shot because as soon as I lift the camera they fly away ( or dart to the other side of the bush!). For me it's the composition, too many twigs. My eyes keep searching the background for something else. You could try a tighter crop. But I do like his red coloring against the grey background, makes him pop! Just keep shooting and keep critiquing your work! You'll be amazed at your progress!!
I very much agree with the comment about the tree being the eye-catcher. It does steel my attention away from the bird. I think, turning it down will improve it quite a bit.
Hi Teresa. A great composition, and I would not crop it too much tighter as someone mentioned. But yes about the bright yellow and the bird not quite in focus, eye especially. You can rectify a lot of this in post production with minimal effort and the right tools. Here's just a quick effort, two minutes, with selective adjustments, especially leaving the background nicely blurred as someone also mentioned above. The broken tree limb is the most difficult to deal with as the highlights are completely blown out as shot. It would need significantly more careful work for "production."
@janetb Well, in Photoshop, I duplicated the whole frame on a separate layer, laid in a strong dose of "Smart Sharpen" on this top layer, put a black layer mask on this layer (ALT + Add layer mask), chose a fairly hard white brush and painted on the layer mask over the bird. If I went over the edges, I reduced the size of the brush to 2 or 3 pixels and then painted back black. That actually sharpened the whole bird, which I thought could be done since it was all slightly behind the precise plane of focus.
If you find you've sharpened it too much, no worries, just reduce the opacity of this top (sharpened) layer until it looks right to you. BTW, I always strongly sharpen on a separate layer, with or without a layer mask, and then adjust down if it's too much. Provides a lot of options to be "subtle" or "heavy" all with one pass of the sharpener. Also if nasty edge glows appear, go into Blending Options for the layer and down at the bottom, "Blend If" on the current layer, pull the left slider for the whites (you can separate them out holding the ALT key) to the left, "to taste."
If you just want the eye, Lightroom (and Camera Raw) have the radial filter to make a (graded) circle easy. Lots of options, but choose one to add +1 (or more) to the exposure and place the center right over the center of the eye and extend it a little way over the rest. You can try "shadows" instead, but the whole exposure seems to work best in these tight areas for me. You might want to add in some sharpening to this as well. Again, it's to your own "taste" of course.
Hi Teresa! Firstly, kudos to you to ask for constructive criticism. With that approach there is no doubt you will continue to make better images. Good critique acknowledges both the strengths and the weaknesses of an image.
Let's start with the strengths of this image:
- There is a clear subject
- There is good asymmetry to the composition, the cardinal is composed left of center which provides adequate space for it's gaze through the right side of the image
Areas for improvement:
- Simplicity. On the plus side, the image is compositionally simple with only 4 or less components (bird, broken branch, small branches, and background). The broken branch and the two or three thick branches provide good compositional framing and lines for the subject. However, the very small branches are complex and distracting and significantly weaken the simplicity of the image. Going forward, look for opportunities for a "cleaner" background.
- Separation of subject to background. On the plus side, the color contrast between the subject and background serve well to isolate the subject from the background. On the negative side, the many small branches intersect with the subject and this also weakens the composition. The solution is the similar to the previous, to look for opportunities to isolate the subject so that other components (branches, wires, poles, etc) are not intersecting the subject.
- Camera settings. A stop or two of faster shutter speed in trade for a stop or two of aperture might have been a good choice, this is of course if your equipment (lens) would have permitted
So these are basically the same points that Diane and Vera made, just a bit more wordy lol! Keep shooting! :)
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You have the eye of the bird, but it is not in focus, the wing is in focus. When photographing animals or people the eyes need to be in focus.
The following things are usually attention-catchers, and suitable as a focus for simplification. Listed in decreasing strength:
- Eyes
- Faces
- The human form in general
- Animals
- Light colored objects (against a dark background)
- Dark objects (against a light background)
- Warm-colored objects (against cool-colored or desaturated backgrounds: red on green, red on gray)
- Objects with strong contrast
https://www.dropbox.com/s/95zn2iy4lzeg427/Cardinal.jpg?dl=0
All the best in the new year.
If you find you've sharpened it too much, no worries, just reduce the opacity of this top (sharpened) layer until it looks right to you. BTW, I always strongly sharpen on a separate layer, with or without a layer mask, and then adjust down if it's too much. Provides a lot of options to be "subtle" or "heavy" all with one pass of the sharpener. Also if nasty edge glows appear, go into Blending Options for the layer and down at the bottom, "Blend If" on the current layer, pull the left slider for the whites (you can separate them out holding the ALT key) to the left, "to taste."
If you just want the eye, Lightroom (and Camera Raw) have the radial filter to make a (graded) circle easy. Lots of options, but choose one to add +1 (or more) to the exposure and place the center right over the center of the eye and extend it a little way over the rest. You can try "shadows" instead, but the whole exposure seems to work best in these tight areas for me. You might want to add in some sharpening to this as well. Again, it's to your own "taste" of course.
Can't answer for other editors.
Let's start with the strengths of this image:
- There is a clear subject
- There is good asymmetry to the composition, the cardinal is composed left of center which provides adequate space for it's gaze through the right side of the image
Areas for improvement:
- Simplicity. On the plus side, the image is compositionally simple with only 4 or less components (bird, broken branch, small branches, and background). The broken branch and the two or three thick branches provide good compositional framing and lines for the subject. However, the very small branches are complex and distracting and significantly weaken the simplicity of the image. Going forward, look for opportunities for a "cleaner" background.
- Separation of subject to background. On the plus side, the color contrast between the subject and background serve well to isolate the subject from the background. On the negative side, the many small branches intersect with the subject and this also weakens the composition. The solution is the similar to the previous, to look for opportunities to isolate the subject so that other components (branches, wires, poles, etc) are not intersecting the subject.
- Camera settings. A stop or two of faster shutter speed in trade for a stop or two of aperture might have been a good choice, this is of course if your equipment (lens) would have permitted
So these are basically the same points that Diane and Vera made, just a bit more wordy lol! Keep shooting! :)